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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-10-06 - Parks and Rec Advisory Council Meeting Minutes MINUTES OF THE VILLAGE OF RYE BROOK PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY COUNCIL 938 KING STREET, RYE BROOK,NEW YORK 10573 October 6, 2008 Convene Meeting: Chairman Steve Schoen called the meeting to order at 8:15pm. The following members of the Council were present: Advisory Council Members: Chairman Steve Schoen, Richard Gutner, Debra Tempesta Jeffrey Komblum, Ken Frankel, Marc Zimmerman, Sari Jablon, Glenn Brettschneider Absent Council Members: Steven Epstein Rye Brook Resident: Adam Berman Recreation Department Members Present: Robert Bertolacci, Parks and Recreation Superintendent 1. Minutes: Chairman Schoen asked for a motion to accept the Minutes of September 9, 2008. Committee Member Gutner made a motion to accept the September 9, 2008 Minutes and Committee Member Jablon seconded the motion and all approved. 11. Public View Points: There were no Public View Points. 111. Superintendent's Report a. Kyle Thornton Superintendent Bertolacci stated that Kyle Thornton was appointed by the Village Board as the new recreation employee. Kyle has worked part-time in Rye and Dobbs Ferry Recreation. He has a Master's Degree in Recreation and his Undergraduate Degree in Sociology. Kyle will start on Wednesday and will take over the programs that John ran. b. Fall Programs Superintendent Bertolacci reported that a couple weeks ago there was a brawl at our men's flag football program. The team from Harrison started the brawl and was thrown out of the league and another team was placed in their spot. The Harrison team played in our league last year and had some issues last year. The Rye Brook and Port Chester Police Departments responded when called to the Rye Brook Turf Field. Superintendent Bertolacci said that the message to the league was to show the other teams in the league that we aren't going to put up with any sort of nonsense. Superintendent Bertolacci said that all other programs are running smoothly. There 1 are 22 kids in the bowling program. Superintendent Bertolacci said he spoke to Steve Forzaglia who is running the lacrosse program. We started out with 2 sessions but didn't have enough kids signed up. Once the program got started we ended up with 36 kids. Coach Forzaglia tried to get instructors from Manhattanville but it was their weight training time. He was unable to get anyone to help out. The only criticism we may get from that program is the size of the class with only one instructor. Ice Skating will start in November and basketball will begin in December. Floor Hockey is going well and Kyle will be taking that program over. Superintendent Bertolacci said the number of sign-ups in Basketball is down. Of the 6th and 7th grade girl's basketball, there is only one 7th grade girl signed up. IV. Travel Baseball Superintendent Bertolacci stated that he received the e-mail addresses for all the kids that participated in the summer and fall travel baseball group. Committee Member Tempesta and I will be inputting all the addresses in our community pass program this week. Superintendent Bertolacci said he has some questions that will be on the survey that he received from Chris Bradbury, Village Administrator. Reading from the survey, Chairman Schoen said the 1st question is the parents overall experience and the second question is for the child's overall experience as a player. Committee Member Kornblum said that a lot of kids are still having issues coordinating soccer and baseball. Committee Member Gutner stated that he attended a meeting with the soccer board and the baseball committee and the problem is that soccer puts their schedule out early and their schedule for their games is in concrete. The WBA baseball league puts their schedule out week by week to accommodate the kids who do both sports. The problem is that some of the soccer coaches tell the kids that if you are not here for skills or practice you are not playing. The rec baseball program in the fall has been very flexible and the soccer schedule is set in stone. Committee Member Tempesta stated that a lot of parents are still against having their children choose between soccer and baseball. A child can do just so many practices and so many games a week. It was not a problem with the soccer or baseball board but it was driving the point home to the parents that they have to explain to their kid that if they want to play 2 sports, each sport requires x number of practices and x number of games and the other sport requires the same. The parent puts the child into this situation. It is not so much that the boards are not flexible or not willing to meet with us but it's the parents who are sending their children to do multi tasking. The child can't choose or pick what they want to do. Committee Member Zimmerman said the child has to be pushed in the right direction and hope they make good choices. If the parents are going to put them in a situation where everyone wants to play every sport, then the parent has to be aware of the decisions of the coaches are going to be final and the decision of the coaches should be uniform throughout the boards. Committee Member Gutner stated that if the board comes out at the beginning of the season and says if your child is going to do both sports we can't guarantee you the same play time that I would give a child that comes to every practice. That should be put out there to the parents from day one because there are parents out there now that are screaming because their kids are in multiple sports and aren't playing. Chairman Schoen said the baseball club and soccer club have made progress on the game conflicts, but should also work together on the practice schedule to see if they can be a little more accommodating to each other since the practices are not set in stone like the soccer games. 2 Regarding the survey, Committee Member Zimmerman asked if we are going to ask the parents to give an answer on a scale of 1 to 10 and elaborate they are going to say 7. For example, do you feel that the travel baseball club presented a positive program for your child? You're giving someone the opportunity to say yes or no. The question should be rephrased as follows: How did the baseball club, if at all, present a positive program for your child? Superintendent Bertolacci said an e-mail would be sent out and the survey would be on our website and will be anonymous. Superintendent Bertolacci will e-mail the questions on the survey to the Advisory Council for their input before it goes out as a survey. V. Basketball Chairman Schoen asked how many council members are doing the ratings. Committee Member Gutner said the ratings went more smoothly. Chairman Schoen said that if you have the same coaches rating both times because of the two dates, you will have more consistent ratings. Chairman Schoen was there for the first date of the 4th and 5th grade boys and the 6th and 7th grade boy's ratings. It went pretty fast with 12 kids on the court. Rye Brook resident Adam Berman rated the 4th and 5th grade boys on the second date. He said it was difficult for the coaches because there was 3 on 3 at one basket and 3 on 3 at the other basket and you were expected to be rating both at the same time. It wasn't as organized as it probably should have been. Chairman Schoen said when he attended the ratings the kids were on both sides and played a few minutes and then the coaches doing the ratings switched sides while the kids stayed where they were and continued to play. Chairman Schoen said there were 40 to 50 4th and 5th grade boys and the ratings were done in an hour. Superintendent Bertolacci said last year it took about lhour and % to rate that many kids. Chairman Schoen said they had the kids do 2 rounds of layup lines after they played the 3 on 3 games on each side and the raters switched sides so that they could evaluate all the kids. There were 3 or more raters for each basket. Once the season starts, the younger basketball groups will focus more on practice skills the first couple of weeks opposed to playing games. VI. Community Center Chairman Schoen stated there isn't much that has happened regarding the community center since the prior meeting. When we last talked about it we said we would try to put something together in power point with the goal of meeting with the trustees at a work session. The Comprehensive Plan for the Village is going to take into account the idea, within the context of recreation, of having a community center for the Village. Chairman Schoen said that it is great that a community center is being considered in the context of everything that is being thought about for recreation in the Village, but the allocation of money for studies that need to be done would get caught up in the process as well. As I understand it, nothing is going to move on the Comprehensive Plan until January 2009. What our council talked about was to get some allocation of funds from the Board of Trustees to do a feasibility study on the community center, apart from the Comprehensive Plan, so as to not have it get caught up in that process, and then incorporate the findings from the feasibility study into the overall process. The questions that will come up will be how much is it going to cost us and where are you going to put it? Chairman Schoen gave the council members an outline that was put together at one of the sub- committee meetings. There is a list of activities in the outline that can be offered. Chairman Schoen asked the council to review the outline and send him an e-mail if anyone has any 3 comments or thinks of something that should be included in the outline. Chairman Schoen asked if we want to talk about the idea of having a community center survey on our website. Committee Member Brettschneider asked if this is a feasible idea right now with the way the economy is right now. Chairman Schoen said no one is looking to spend money right now but by the time it gets going, it will be something that will move forward. Superintendent Bertolacci said we are really trying to have the Village Board think about a community center, but we are not looking to bring the idea to the public yet. VII. Adjournment A motion was made by Committee Member Tempesta at 9:25 to adjourn the meeting. The motion was seconded by Committee Member Gutner and all approved. The next Parks and Recreation Advisory Council meeting is on November 3, 2008 at 8:15. Minutes prepared by Carmella Swick 4